Update

I'm thinking that I will really try to keep this blog up to date. As grateful as I am for family & friends enquiring how things are going, some times telling the same update 10 times becomes tedious. By writing this blog, the people who we want to keep up to date with our progress will have easy access to the latest news.

We did another round of Clomid in February. It didn't work. Further ultrasounds suggested that the cyst on my ovary was more than likely an endometrioma. By March, Dr B was suggesting that we really need to go ahead with the surgery (laparoscopy)  to remove it. Doing this would also give him a chance to see if anything else was wrong. Ultrasounds and blood tests only tell us so much. He also told us that he thought our best chance to conceive would come from IVF. To do an egg retireval with a cyst/endometrioma in the way would risk infection. Therefore, surgery was necessary before moving to IVF.

We approached AHM, my health insurance fund, and were told that due their belief that this is all a pre-existing condition that they would offer no benefit until the 12 months waiting period had passed (Sept 2011). Not wanting to wait that long, we decided to go ahead with the surgery anyway and booked in for May 20. This allowed us to enjoy our already planned vacation to Vietnam in April.

I am really unhappy with AHM's decision, as I do not believe the condition was pre-existing according to their definition.  My GP & specialist both wrote letters to support this, but AHM's 'medically trained' decision maker disagreed. When I pushed AHM as to whether 'medical training' meant that the person was a doctor they refused to answer. I pointed out that I considered myself to be medically trained as I have a Senior First Aid Certificate, although that would clearly not make me qualified to decide whether someone deserved their operation paid for or not. They didn't enjoy these further questions, refusing to answer them. I will be taking it up with the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman.

So, that brought us to operation day...which I will put in the next entry.

The first visit to Dr B

In early September we had our first appointment with our fertility specialist, Dr B. We both quite liked him and felt pretty comfortable right away. After looking at the test results from our GP he told J that his SA looked OK and that the focus needed to be on me. So he ordered more bloods for both of us, along with an ultrasound and a Hysterosalpingo contrast sonography (HyCoSy) for me. And so the sub-fertility investigations began...along with the constant outlay of money for various procedures.


J's test indicated that he has around 80% anti sperm antibodies (ASA). Neither of us were entirely sure what this meant, but Dr B said you can get pregnant with 99% ASA and that it was not cause for concern at this time.


My HyCoSy was not pleasant. Quite uncomfortable, but not painful. Had some cramping following, but the news that my fallopian tubes were 100% clear and open made me feel a lot better! The ultrasound showed a small cyst on one ovary. This led to a preliminary diagnosis of Polycystic ovaries, but not PCOS. They also saw some signs of endometriosis. Dr B suggested a laparoscopy to investigate further. Of course, he only operates in private hospitals and my private health insurance will not cover it as it's deemed to be a pre-existing condition. This means that I have to serve a 12 month waiting period, which will bring me to  Sept 2011.


A follow-up ultrasound in early January 2010 showed that they cyst has not grown and with this knowledge it was decided that we could hold off on surgery (which would cost us in excess of $2000) and wait until out health fund will cover it.


In the mean time, Dr B has put me on a 3 month course of Clomid to "give nature a helping hand" as he put it. As I do appear to ovulate every month I am only on 25mg from day 3-7 of my cycle. I have some friends who successfully conceived with Clomid, so I'm hopeful. If we have no luck in 3 months, then we can look at other options - going ahead with the surgery (no guarantee that this will aid conception), IUI and IVF are all on the cards.